Former boy soldier reaches for change, hopes for equality

BEAH, page 1

“There was a Sierra Leone that existed before the war, during the war and the possibility after the war,” Beah said. “I loved living in my country. It was the happiest time of my life. I lived a remarkable life and the simplicity of it, I miss the most.”

Beah brought attention to the need for education and the genuine desire to learn about places like Sierra Leone and other countries before the tragedies happen. With this knowledge human beings can develop the compassion and the capacity to understand why people are suffering and eventually will want to help and make the changes that this world is desperately searching for.

“Each human life is valuable and is the same,” Beah said. “We are closer than people want to believe.” it doesn’t guarantee they will be ready to act as civilians right away.

Rehabilitated from a soldier who mercilessly killed innocent people without ever knowing why he was committing such crimes to an educated young man who selflessly tells his story with hopes of putting a face to the many tragedies happening in the world today, Beah radiated the power of transformation while standing behind the podium in the Grace Hall Atrium.

“They were cramming readjusting down your throat as soon as you stepped off the plane,” Dixon said. He said that the constant reminder that he needed to readjust was one of the hardest parts of coming back because it was always on his mind.

When Dixon landed in Texas after a 26-hour plane trip home, the first thing he needed to do was hand in his rifle. He felt “disoriented” without it and although he’s been without it for over a month, he still feels he’s forgetting something every time he walks out the door.

He was given a five-day pass, which he spent in San Antonio with his family before he had to go through the two-week reintegration process. Other challenges he had were learning how to drive normally again and, more importantly, relearning how to relax in a crowd of people.

The reintegration session is also a time to try to manage Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Since 2001, the number of U.S. soldiers who suffer from PTSD has tripled, HealthDay News said. Dixon said the army was offering three free psychiatric sessions to soldiers who needed it. “I think a lot of people could use it but not enough people take advantage of it,” Dixon said.

Dixon knows soldiers who are heavily affected by PTSD and they’ll start obsessing about a certain subject and can’t stop thinking about it until they break down and cry. He thinks that although he’s witnessed terrible things, some are affected by it more because they have experienced more tragic events, like watching friends die in their arms.

One death is plenty to witness, he said. The one death he’ll never forget was an Iraqi interpreter who worked for them and was shot in the first two months he was there. “It sort of made it all real. It’s when you wake up and realize, well, this isn’t training anymore. This is the real deal,” he said. He has had some occurrences with PTSD but he doesn’t think it’s serious. The army told him it could take two to three months after returning for PTSD to fully affect someone. Dixon can no longer sleep for long periods of time, usually four hours at the most, and he often wakes up sweating and his heart pounding. In Iraq he never had nightmares or trouble sleeping. He now has dreams with a reoccurring theme: he’s in a situation where people are relying on him to save them but he can’t get his weapon to fire. He thinks a dream like this is normal but after his experience in Iraq, he “doesn’t know what’s normal and what’s not normal.”

HACKETT, page 1 could be wiped out in an instant. After that terrible realization, CRS realized it had to look more deeply at issues of social justice in the world. “But most importantly, we offered hope, we offered a future to those who didn’t think they had a future,” Hackett said.

Having 30 years experience working with the impoverished and hurting, Hackett shared one of CRS’s more memorable success stories. Hackett told the tale of a Zambian educator named Bridget Chisenga who was diagnosed as HIV positive. Word of her illness spread throughout the community resulting in her being ostracized and the loss of her job. Chisenga, however, did not give up. She was assisted by CRS to obtain antiretroviral medication. She then was able to have hope for her future. She has since become an outreach worker for HIV programming. She was able to obtain the hope she once lost.